{"id":17020,"date":"2017-05-17T16:43:27","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=17020"},"modified":"2017-05-17T16:43:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:43:27","slug":"first-use-of-abracadabra-its-serenus-sammonicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2017\/05\/17\/first-use-of-abracadabra-its-serenus-sammonicus\/","title":{"rendered":"First use of “abracadabra”? It’s Serenus Sammonicus!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first writer to use the phrase “abracadabra” as a magical incantation is, I understand, the (probably) late second century AD medical writer Q. Serenus Sammonicus.\u00a0 He does so in his two-book medical handbook, the Liber medicinalis<\/em>, in chapter 51, as a cure for demi-tertian fever, which is perhaps some form of malaria.[ref]Critical edition and translation by R. Pepin, Quintus Serenus (Sammonicus), Liber medicinalis<\/em>, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1950.\u00a0 I have no access to this, so have relied on the older French translation at remacle.org<\/a>.\u00a0 More information about Serenus Sammonicus is accessible at Prioreschi, p.505<\/a>.[\/ref]<\/p>\n

Here’s the Latin for chapter 51, from the PHI site:[ref]http:\/\/latin.packhum.org\/loc\/1515\/1\/0#0<\/a>[\/ref]<\/p>\n

Hemitritaeo depellendo.\n\nMortiferum magis est quod Graecis hemitritaeos\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 51.932 \nuulgatur uerbis; hoc nostra dicere lingua\u00a0 \nnon potuere ulli, puto, nec uoluere parentes.\u00a0 \nInscribes chartae quod dicitur abracadabra<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0935 \nsaepius et subter repetes, sed detrahe summam\u00a0 \net magis atque magis desint elementa figuris\u00a0 \nsingula, quae semper rapies, et cetera \u2020figes,\u00a0 \ndonec in angustum redigatur littera conum:\u00a0 \nhis lino nexis collum redimire memento.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 940 \nNonnulli memorant adipem prodesse leonis.\u00a0 \ncoralium uero si \u2020cocco nectere\u2020 uelis\u00a0 \nnec dubites illi ueros miscere smaragdos,\u00a0 \nadsit baca teres niueo pretiosa colore:\u00a0 \ntalia languentis conducent uincula collo 945 \nletalesque abiget miranda potentia morbos.<\/pre>\n
Which is more or less as follows:<\/p>\n
\n
52.\u00a0 Against the demi-tertian fever.<\/p>\n
The fever that the Greeks call “hemitritaion” is more dangerous.\u00a0 The Greek word\u00a0 has never been translated into Latin, whether because the nature of the language will not allow it, or because parents, in the belief that to do so would bring harm to their children, have been unwilling to give it a name.\u00a0 Write on a piece of papyrus ABRACADABRA.\u00a0 Then repeat this word as\u00a0 many times as there are letters in the word, but each time taking off a letter, so that the whole thing takes the form of a cone.\u00a0 This done, hang the piece of papyrus around the neck of the patient with a linen thread.\u00a0 It is claimed that lion-fat is also a good medicine.\u00a0 Coral and saffron wrapped in a cat’s skin has a virtue not less marvellous.\u00a0 If you think it advisable to hang some coral around the patient’s neck, include some emeralds: this talisman will infallibly cast out the lethal fire of the fever.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Prioreschi\u00a0draws this explanatory diagram (although methinks the last two columns have got out of line!):[ref]Plinio Prioreschi, A History of Medicine (vol. 3): Roman medicine<\/em>, Omaha: Horatius Press, 1998, p.508-509<\/a>.[\/ref]<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The diagram contains the word “ABRACA” a lot.\u00a0 Is there perhaps a connection to Abracax\u00a0\/ Abraxas, the gnostic deity?<\/p>\n
I learn from Prioreschi\u00a0that the actual origin of the word “abracadabra” is unknown but\u00a0in the middle ages became famous as a way to work magic, medicinal and otherwise.\u00a0 Apparently Pepin’s edition contains more information on this, for those interested in tracing it further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first writer to use the phrase “abracadabra” as a magical incantation is, I understand, the (probably) late second century AD medical writer Q. Serenus Sammonicus.\u00a0 He does so in his two-book medical handbook, the Liber medicinalis, in chapter 51, as a cure for demi-tertian fever, which is perhaps some form of malaria.[ref]Critical edition and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[83,1512],"class_list":["post-17020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-abracadabra","tag-serenus-sammonicus"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}